Independent Films

Indie filmmakers are reaping the rewards -- or perhaps more correctly, awards – when they shoot their stories on film! 2013 has seen much success for the indie film market, and Kodak is proud to have been a part of many of those productions.

Take for example Fruitvale Station which first began making waves at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. Not only was it picked up by The Weinstein Company, it also took home the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize.

Top Hat is the story of Graham, a timid Saturday boy who works at a dry cleaners. His boss (Don) runs a tight ship and constantly berates Graham for his incompetence at the job. When 'The Gentleman' enters the shop, and asks for his top hat to be dry-cleaned, Graham happily agrees. When Graham accidentally shrinks the top hat, he believes he is in serious trouble. What follows is beyond even Graham's wildest imagination.

This project represents my second collaboration with Director Michael Middleton-Downer, and my first with Producer Sian Tomlinson. After reading Samuel Hutchinson's wonderfully warm and quirky screenplay, I phoned up Mike and committed straight away. Good writing is the basis of all great cinematic works, and it's important to not let such gems slip through the net.

Filmmaker Karthik Muthukumar recently won best student cinematography at India's National Student Film Awards for his film SKYLAB IS FALLING. Here's what Muthukumar told InCamera:

Tell us the one thing about yourself connected to the craft of filmmaking I think filmmaking is a process of discovering oneself. It helped me to know the world better. It changed the way I see the world. It opened up wide space and it gave me the insight to think beyond what I am. It is also a never-ending process with no rules and limitation; you can play the game in n-number of ways. I think now that I am addicted to it so I want to pursue it all through my life and I also want to play fearlessly.

A good cinematographer knows when a lighter photographic touch better serves the story. Thomas Kloss felt that the independent film Don Jon was a textbook example.

“It’s not a high-budget action movie that’s being driven by photography,” he says. “This story is being told by actors, and the subject matter and the photography has to support that with a simple, straightforward approach and no overcomplicated bells and whistles.”

Larry Smith, BSC teamed with Jerusha Hess for her directorial feature debut Austenland. The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is a romantic comedy about a single, 30- something woman obsessed with all things Jane Austen.

Keri Russell stars as Jane Haynes, whose love life is being ruined by Mr. Darcy — played by Colin Firth in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice — as no real man can compare. Haynes decides to spend her life savings on a trip to an English resort that caters to Austen fanatics, and her fantasies of meeting the perfect Regency-era gentleman suddenly become more real than she ever could have imagined.